Londoners share their environmental passion through ‘Green Drinks’

Sometimes making new friends can be hard, especially if the environmental aspects are your passion and not many people might find it interesting. Green Drinks is an environmental group of Londoners and guess speakers where all become friends and talk about environmental related topics and issues.

“It’s really fun! It’s essentially just two hours of socializing and you can bring friends if you want, or when you there you will probably meet somebody new, but it’s a good time,” says Skylar Franke, Executive Director of the London Environmental Network.

She adds that the idea is making friendships and finding ways to take care of our environment, for instance, using active transportation such as biking, walking, or busing to the gathering.

“We try to choose our locations to be environmentally friendly, so they probably don’t use a lot of plastic, or they source lots of local ingredients,” says Franke.

Some of the topics discussed in these bi-monthly meetups are food waste, energy, sustainable building, and others.

Credit: London Environmental Network

“This week, we are talking about electric vehicles. We have Bob Porter from the London Electric Vehicle Association talking about charging stations and where to buy charging vehicles,” adds Franke.

These gatherings are an international movement also practiced in Toronto, Vancouver and even France. London has done for its 2nd year with the idea to chat with like-minded neighbours

“They get there, they get a name tag, and if they want they can purchase raffle tickets. We always get prices that are environmentally friendly, so this month we have a composter, we have soil test, so if someone wants to test their soil in the backyard. We have also got plates that are made of compostable materials,” says executive director.

When you see the name ‘Green Drinks’ you would probably think, do they actually drink, ‘Green Drinks’? Franke says that nothing that they have had so far has been actually colour green and that the name comes from having a glass of wine, chatting with friend and making new friends while discussing environmental topics.

Frank says all ages are welcome and students get in for free. The social event is happening today at Edgard & Joe’s Café at 4:30 pm.